List of Congresses of the Moderate Party of Rutania
Below is a historical index of the Moderate Party of Rutania's leadership elections and party congresses. Rules From the party's founding until 3512, the leader and deputy leader were selected by the parliamentary caucus. In 3512, the rules were amended to allow the party membership to participate. Since then, the rules have been further amended. *In order to stand, a candidate must secure nominations from at least 10% of the parliamentary caucus. *After the Party President announces the official list of candidates, the parliamentary caucus votes. If a candidate obtains a majority of support from the caucus, he or she is elected. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, the party membership selects the leader. 3508 leadership elections Held on June 18, 3508 3512 leadership elections Results announced on November 16, 3512 3519 leadership elections Results announced on April 15, 3519 Chief Whip Tom Farrell was the first to announce his candidacy for the leadership and surprised observers by failing to receive the five nominations needed to contest the election. Foreign Affairs critic Grace Fox, Louise Hovi, Nicholas Axman, and Joanna Storin all received the necessary nominations. Hovi was put at a severe disadvantage when she received only her vote in the parliamentary section of the first ballot. Axman was undeniably the most popular candidate and won 44% of the vote on the first ballot, followed by Fox with 29%. Hovi won 15% and Storin won 12%. Winning just under 9%, Hovi was the first candidate eliminated. Storin did well but not well enough to proceed. She withdrew but still won votes from Hovi's supporters. In the second round, Axman won the votes of 26 MPs while Fox received 22 and Storin got 1. In the membership section, Axman obtained 55% to Fox's 39%. 6% voted for Storin. It was then announced that Axman had won 54% to Fox's 42%. Storin won the remaining 4%. The deputy leadership was contested by five backbenchers. No candidate had a distinct advantage in the parliamentary section but it was evident that Anthony Ptolemy would be the first candidate eliminated. In the membership section, Samantha Bradbury placed first with 31%. Mathieu Cazares won 28% followed by Richard Sing with 24%, Ptolemy with 13% and Geoff Solberg with 4%. Cazares topped the first ballot with Bradbury and Sing separated by less than 1%. Ptolemy was eliminated and Solberg chose to end his candidacy. Cazares increased his lead into the second ballot and Bradbury was able to edge out Sing. In the final round, Cazares won the parliamentary section over Bradbury 28 to 21. However, Bradbury won the membership by a 50.5 to 49.5 margin. 3525 leadership elections Results announced on May 16, 3525 Deputy Leader Mathieu Cazares was the instant frontrunner for the leadership. Richard Sing, the Internal Affairs critic, and Anthony Ptolemy, the Defence critic, were second tier candidates while Geoff Solberg, the Finance critic, and Michael Tenison, a backbench MP, were regarded as fringe candidates. Few expected Cazares to win the leadership on the first ballot and the real race was to see who would garner the most second preferences from Solberg and Tenison. However, Solberg performed much better than expected in the debate and likely took a significant amount of support away from Cazares and Ptolemy. Still, his result was not good enough to survive on the second ballot. He dropped out and Cazares and Sing advanced to the final round leaving Ptolemy in third place. In the last round, preferences were nearly split between Sing and Cazares and this allowed Cazares to have a relatively comfortable win. Samantha Bradbury, the Justice critic and runner-up in the last deputy leadership election, was initially the frontrunner. The race was expected to bring a number of high profile women into the leadership arena as the party was seen as having a problem with women. Bradbury was viewed as having been unfairly defeated in the last election and many prominent politicians endorsed her. Her main competitors were considered Louise Hovi, the Science and Technology critic, and Joanna Storin, the Education critic. Prue Fazio and Desiree Watson, two conservative backbench MPs were not expected to garner much support. The dynamic of the race changed when Mary Van Otterloo, a highly charismatic MP, launched her bid. Still, the race was Bradbury's to lose. Bernice Primrose was the final candidate to enter the race. She was privately encouraged by Nicholas Axman, Alex Drake-Brockman, and Christian Guillou to join the field. The debate proved to greatly help Van Otterloo while hurt Bradbury, Hovi, and Storin. Bradbury had been expected to top the first round and her campaign panicked when Primrose led after the first ballot. Watson was eliminated and Fazio dropped out. Van Otterloo was the big winner after the second round. A plurality of preferences went to her. Storin received the fewest votes in the second round (after Fazio who had already withdrawn but was still eligible to receive votes) and Hovi ended her bid after it became apparent that she could not win. Storin, Hovi, and Fazio's preferences were nearly split between Primrose, Bradbury, and Van Otterloo. Primrose continued to widen her lead and ultimately defeated Bradbury by winning 51% of the points and 52% of the preferences. Congresses I - II *'I Congress': Held on January 7, 3527 **Leader: Mathieu Cazares (88.7%), Deputy Leader: Bernice Primrose (91.6%), Party President: Samantha Bradbury (90.7%) *'II Congress': Held on January 9, 3531 **Leader: Bernice Primrose (89.9%), Party President: Samantha Bradbury (89.1%) 3532 leadership elections Results announced on June 5, 3532 After Mathieu Cazares resigned as leader, many expected a tight contest between interim leader Bernice Primrose and former leaders Christian Guillou and Nicholas Axman. However, all three decided against running. Matt Glavic, a political economist, quickly rallied support and was the frontrunner. Cameron DesBrisay was viewed as the main alternative to Glavic. Eric Creaghan and Sharri Kalmbach were second tier candidates and were viewed as dark horse candidates to win the leadership. Michael Salier and Solène Castillo were not given much of a chance, especially considering that Castillo was married to Cazares. Castillo was the first candidate to be eliminated and Salier withdrew shortly after. Glavic and DesBrisay were far ahead of Creaghan and Kalmbach but many wanted to see who would place fourth. Ultimately, Kalmbach was edged out by Creaghan and saw a significant portion of her votes go to Glavic. Creaghan polled 22% on the third ballot and was eliminated. Nearly 60% of his supporters went to Glavic. Glavic scored a comfortable win on the fourth ballot. The race for the Deputy Leadership generated much more attention than the leadership race. Graham Buchanan, Richard Sing, Geoff Solberg, and Nick Proctor were all expected to be within a few hundred points of each other. There was no clear frontrunner and each stood a legitimate chance of winning. Michael Tenison and Natalie Fielding weren’t expected to receive a significant amount of support. Ultimately, it became clear that the race would come down to Buchanan, Sing, and Solberg. Solberg won nearly 30% before his elimination on the third round. In the end, Buchanan defeated Sing by 10%. Congresses III through VII *'III Congress': Held on January 15, 3535 **Leader: Matt Glavic (91.1%), Deputy Leader: Graham Buchanan (90.3%), Party President: Geoff Solberg (86.4%) *'IV Congress': Held on January 8, 3539 **Leader: Matt Glavic (79.7%), Deputy Leader: Graham Buchanan (83.1%), Party President: Geoff Solberg (71.4%) *'V Congress': Held on January 6, 3543 **Leader: Matt Glavic (90.7%), Deputy Leader: Graham Buchanan (93.2%), Party President: Geoff Solberg (88.5%) *'VI Congress': Held on January 15, 3547 **Leader: Matt Glavic (89.8%), Deputy Leader: Graham Buchanan (91.2%), Party President: Geoff Solberg (90.7%) *'VII Congress': Held on January 13, 3551 **Leader: Matt Glavic (90.4%), Deputy Leader: Graham Buchanan (90.3%), Party President: Geoff Solberg (90.7%)